Last Saturday, Maryland pulled off one of its most thrilling wins since joining the Big Ten, with a 45-44 victory over Minnesota. The game was decided by a Golden Gophers missed extra point, giving the Terps their first conference win over a team besides Rutgers since 2018.
While it was a great win, a couple of coaching decisions could’ve given Maryland a chance to win the game without it being a nailbiter. With the Terps likely to be the underdog in almost every game they play the rest of the year, head coach Mike Locksley should learn from these decisions and be more aggressive the rest of the year.
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The first questionable decision from the Terps came with 5:08 left in the second quarter with the score even at 21. Facing a 4th-and-2 from the Minnesota 43, Maryland punted and pinned Minnesota at the 9-yard-line. In general, there’s nothing wrong with forcing your opponent to try to drive 91 yards to get a touchdown, but that was hardly a deterrent for the Gophers. In just five plays they found the endzone, thanks in part to a 33-yard run from Mohamed Ibrahim and a 29-yard run from Treyson Potts.
While Maryland’s prior offensive drive ended with an interception, it still showed a surprising lack of faith in an offense that already put up three touchdowns in one half. In contrast, it showed a large amount of faith in a defense that had allowed a touchdown its prior three drives and seemed like it had no answer for the Gopher rushing attack after struggling the prior week against Northwestern.
Following Minnesota’s touchdown to go up 28-21, the Terps had a chance to score before halftime and again weren’t aggressive enough, leaving points on the board. Facing a 2nd-and-15 with exactly a minute left, the Terps opted for a pass which fell incomplete. On 3rd-and-15, Maryland then ran the ball to try to set up a shorter field goal for Joseph Petrino but Petrino missed from 51 yards and Maryland went into halftime down by seven. While Petrino was able to drill a 51-yarder during the second half, the Terps still could have tried to do more than hope for a long-distance field goal right before halftime.
Normally, 4th-and-9 would hardly be an ideal distance to go for it in the first half, but if you examine how well Maryland’s offense played last Saturday, it’s not as big a gamble as you’d think. As reported by the Washington Post’s Emily Giambalvo, the Terps had 34 plays where they gained at least seven yards.
With an offense that was clicking, two timeouts and sitting 33 yards from the endzone, it was worth trying to score a touchdown or at least create a much easier field goal for Petrino, but that didn’t happen. Even if Minnesota got the ball back, the field position would’ve made it unlikely for the Gophers to get more points going into the half.
Lastly, Maryland didn’t try any sort of play at the end of regulation with the ball at the Minnesota 44-yard-line. The Terps could’ve opted for a long field goal or a hail mary but wound up deciding to play for overtime. Locksley later admitted he made a mistake, which is encouraging to see.
Through two games, we’ve seen very little evidence Maryland’s defense can reliably get stops, which means Maryland needs to take risks and trust the offense if it wants to get more wins this season. The defense is allowing the most rushing yards per game and second-most total yards per game in the Big Ten, with its 43.5 points per game only trailing Nebraska, whose only game this year was against Ohio State. Out of the 115 teams in FBS to have played at least one game as of Thursday morning, Maryland ranks 113th for rushing yards allowed per game, 106th in total yards allowed per game and 99th in total yards allowed per play. There’s hardly a stat you can find that makes Maryland’s defense look flattering and that’s before they get to face Ohio State in two weeks.
While they came up with enough stops to get the Minnesota game into overtime, allowing 38 points in regulation isn’t the kind of defense where your approach on offense should be punting or kicking field goals if there’s a reasonable chance you can extend the drive by going for it. The athleticism of Taulia Tagovailoa also increases the incentive to go for it, as the transfer from Alabama demonstrated his ability to create offense with legs as well as his arm last week. His 39-yard touchdown scramble showed his dual-threat potential, which could come in handy during a pivotal fourth down.
Even if the Northwestern game was dreadful, any offense that’s able to provide 675 total yards in a conference game should be trusted with being able to convert 4th downs as often as possible. This is especially true when there’s a good chance Maryland will only be favored for the rest of the season against Rutgers. Taking risks may backfire and going for it might leave points on the board for Maryland but everything we’ve seen from 120 minutes of Maryland football shows they’ll need as many points as they can get in every game.
If a game comes down to trusting Tagovailoa or Jake Funk to pick up five yards or trusting the defense to get a stop, I know what decision I’d make and I hope Locksley will agree with me. After all, when you’re the underdog, why not take some risks?
BSL Analyst
Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).